AbstractThe question of the existence of the pre-main sequence (PMS) γ Doradus (γ Dor) pulsators has been raised by observations of young clusters such as NGC 884 hosting γ Dor members.We have explored the properties of γ Dor-type pulsations with a grid of PMS models covering the mass range 1.2 < M*/M☉ < 2.5 and we derive the theoretical instability strip (IS) for the PMS γ Dor pulsators. We explore the possibility of distinguishing between PMS and MS γ Dor by the behaviour of the period spacing of their high order gravity modes (g-modes).